KYM I think that because we lost Archie, we look on Polly as our little miracle
Actress reveals how daughter helped her to find happiness again after death of son who was born 18 weeks early
IT was a moment that left the British Soap Awards audience in tears, when Kym Marsh gripped her gong for best dramatic performance and dedicated it to the child she never saw grow up.
For eight years, Kym has been battling to deal with the devastating loss of Archie, who was born 18 weeks premature and lived for just a few precious seconds. Now, as Coronation Street’s Michelle Connor, she’s been playing out the same agony on screen.
For Kym, there’s one thing that helped her through the past few months – her beloved family, and particularly six-year-old Polly, the “miracle” baby she had two years after the tragedy.
Kym said: “We could all sit down and go, you know what, I have lost a child, I can’t move on. And I fully understand how people can feel like that.
“But there is light at the end of the tunnel and I think that is the driving force behind me wanting to reach out and help people. You can move forward, you can be happy again.
“There were moments where filming was difficult. You couldn’t do something that has changed your life forever, and revisit it, without having some moments where it’s tough.
“But my family were unbelievably supportive. I would walk through the door and Polly would be there running round and asking what is for dinner.
“She doesn’t care whether I have had a bad day or not, she just wants her mum.
“So the reality and normality of my life was the thing that got me out of that – the realisation that this is real, and this is now.”
The harrowing scenes as her character Michelle had a stillbirth at 23 weeks – then discovered husband Steve McDonald, played by Simon Gregson, fathered another baby with Leanne Battersby, were praised by real families who have gone through a loss.
For Kym, 40, losing Archie in February 2009 was one of the hardest times of her life. Having split with first husband Jack Ryder the year before, Kym and her then partner Jamie Lomas were looking forward to starting their own family.
But she went into early labour because of a condition which made her body reject the baby.
Devastated, Kym and Hollyoaks actor Jamie, 42, feared the worst again two years later when they had little Polly at 33 weeks, weighing just 4lb 1oz.
After spending weeks in hospital, Polly pulled through – and seeing her grow into such a happy little girl
made Kym want to tackle the tragic storyline.
Kym, who is now with personal trainer Matt Baker, 26, said: “Corrie told me right from the start that I didn’t have to do it. They said ‘Go away, think about it, talk to your family and take your time’.
“My instinct was to do it as it would raise awareness and educate people about stillbirth and late miscarriage.
“The one thing that got me through my loss was talking about it.
“Obviously in the beginning you don’t want to but it is important to help you accept what has happened and move forward. And I’ve had so much support.
“Work were fantastic. Eight years
down the line from Archie, I had spent all that time trying to move forward from that place that was so dark. I didn’t know how I would feel when I got back in. But they got me a counsellor who was on set every day.
“And when we were filming the meat of the story, the actual baby loss, we did it in one week.”
It was her family who really helped – especially Polly. Kym said: “As soon as I get home and get in the door, I am jumped on by Polly, I’ve got [older daughter] Emily kicking off, [older son] David telling her to shut up. It is just normal life.
“Polly is my little miracle. She is six now and there were times when I was pregnant when I didn’t think we were going to have her, and we nearly lost her several times.
“She is a little whirlwind. From the second she opens her eyes in the morning, she is just energy. She loves life and to see her I think, ‘Thank God for you’.
“We all feel like that about Polly. I think it is because we lost Archie and we didn’t think we were going to have Polly.”
Kym and Matt recently celebrated their two-year anniversary and she describes him as “my one, my partner in crime, my best friend, my world.”
While she loves her showbiz day job, it’s clear family life is what Kym craves the most.
And she brings the whole brood to see her new waxwork figure at Madame Tussauds in Blackpool. Kym said: “My family are so supportive. The Marshes are en masse. We don’t come as a one, we come as a 20.”
She insists she is making the most of a good 2017, despite stolen intimate photos being posted online. Kym said: “I do feel I’m in good place. Everybody at work is saying it, especially the girls in the make-up room. They have seen all of us at our best and at our worst.
“They all say that I seem so happy, just really settled.
“My older children are wonderful adults now. David is 22, Emily is 19. They both have careers and partners.”
Kym has come a long way since the early days of Popstars and Hear’Say and she has been on Corrie for more than a decade.
She said: “I was only meant to be in it for four episodes. But they decided they wanted me back. So here I am, 11 years later, with my own wax figure. “It’s gone in the click of a finger.” But the best moment of Corrie is knowing that she is doing justice to Archie’s memory.
Kym said: “It means so much to me when I hear David and Emily say, ‘We are so proud of you mum.’
“We all went through it together. So to hear them say that, it means the world.”